I am anxious for the new year to begin.  God be willing I will be able to devote myself to the writing business full time.  In the coming year I expect to have new books published and old books with new faces.  But I’m not sitting back waiting on the new year to begin.  I have been steadily working on several projects.  One that I feel very good about is a sequel to my thriller “The coming of dark”.  I’ve got a good start on it, but I’ve still got a little way to go.  I hope to have the book out around April of next year.  This book will explain a little more about Troy who was the main character in the first book.  The coming of dark is currently unpublished but I hope to have it out with a new cover in the next few weeks.
     I have several other book projects in the works.  The range spans several genres which include ghost story, thriller, crime, science fiction and fantasy, and religious fiction.  Currently I can’t say in what order these will be coming out.  Writing is a fickle leader.  On one I may end up stuck for a time.  On another inspiration may hit me with a torrent of words that breathes life into my work.
     Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how great my books are (though that’s a definite concern) if no one sees or hears about them.  My connection to the social network is sorely lacking.  I have to work on that.  Along with that I need to advertise.  There are tons of places to advertise.  Finding the ones that will deliver the best results for my buck is the trick.  Again, it’s something I need to work on.  I’m not too fond of the business part but if I can’t make enough off my writing, I won’t be able to do it full time.
That’s it for now.
 
 
Merry Christmas and happy new year to all.

     One of my faults (among many) is that I am not comfortable with social media.  This is an especially bad fault considering that I am a self-published author.  This social connection is what boosts sales and helps a writer to become successful.  Without strong social ties sales can be flat.
     I know this is something I need to overcome, and I plan to address this.  One of my resolutions for this year is to be more involved in Facebook, Goodreads, and Twitter, but I don’t see it as being a smooth process.  I am more at ease talking to people face to face.  Even my phone calls are usually short and to the point.  There is not a lot of small talk.
     My latest book “The old man and the girl” has been more successful offline.  Because this is a Christian book it is a different situation.  Most of my books have been sold in paperback to the church I attend and to another church as well.  Some books were sold directly through Amazon.  Others were sold by me.  I bought 30 copies from CreateSpace (who manufactures the paperback) and sold them directly.  I will probably be getting more copies to sell soon.  It’s good that I can sell the books directly, but it does nothing for my Amazon ranking.  This, in turn stymies my digital sales.  That’s where a good social media person would come in handy.
     I did have a giveaway on Goodreads.  I mailed the books to the winners about two weeks ago.  I’m hoping that when the reviews come in they will be good.  Judging from the responses I’ve gotten so far, I think they will be.  Assuming the reviews are good I will still need to do something to make the book more visible online.
     I hope to contact more churches with my Christian book.  Hopefully I’ll start getting more digital sales as well.  Though I am concerned with getting sales of this book other than from me directly, it is not my biggest concern.  I do not write specifically Christian books.  I will depend more on online sales from my non-Christian books.
     I have a middle grade book out.  It is a science fiction, fantasy book.  I had a couple other books out that I unpublished for editing.  I also have a couple thriller, science books that I’m working on.  I have some ambitious plans for this year, but I think I need to get a lot better on social media to be successful.  Wish me luck!

The old man and the girl is a Christian drama.  It is the first Christian and/or drama, book that I have written.  Because it was my first venture into this genre’ I found it rather difficult to write.  My books before this have been science fiction, fantasy, and horror.  After the first draft was finished I went through the book multiple times in an effort to make it my best work ever.  Unlike my prior books I knew that I would be encountering more readers in person.  Since this was a Christian novel I expected that a great many of my sales would be at churches.

I bought several dozen books at discount and began to sell them directly.  I started slow.  I am mostly introverted and was somewhat afraid of what kind of feedback I might get.  Not that I was afraid of harsh remarks.  I felt that most, if not all, of the buyers would be gentle with their criticisms.  It was some of the more tepid words which I feared, such as: “I thought it was good,” or “great effort” or “I enjoyed it.”  This tells me that my book is average, or just okay.  That’s not what I want to hear.

The first four books I sold were to people in my Sunday school class.  Then began the long wait for them to read the book hoping that I wouldn’t be disappointed with their evaluation.  It was only a couple days later at a Wal-Mart store when I ran into one of the ladies from church who had bought one of my books.  She immediately told me that she liked my book.  Then, she emphasized her words by saying she really liked it.  This made my day.

It was during the next week that I sold a couple more books and got more good praise.  One of the books went to my Pastor’s wife.  The praise stroked my ego, but I still had a lot of books left.

It was a week later when the Pastor’s wife told me how much she loved the book.  This really made me feel good.  But it was not to be the greatest news that day.  Near the beginning of the service the Pastor unexpectedly announced to everyone that I had written this book.  It was a total surprise to me.  Like I had said earlier I am more of an introvert.  I had not gone around the church announcing that I had a Christian book to sell.

After the service I was besieged by people asking for a copy.  I had books I kept in my car.  It was raining at the time, so I was having to run to my car to get copies.  It was a very awkward situation.  I sold all of them but two copies and I’m sure I missed several people because of the rain and my absence to go and get my books.

Meanwhile, my sister, who lives in Alabama ordered 10 copies from Amazon which she sold to friends.
I realize that soon I will run out of customers at my church.  It is not a mega church.  I’m hoping, however, that other doors will open for me to sell to other churches or Christian organizations.

My biggest weakness is my ebook sales.  I’ve had a few sales, but they were days apart.  My ranking on Amazon has gone up and down.  I am simply no good at promoting my book online.  And, unfortunately, the books I buy at discount on CreateSpace doesn’t count toward my ranking on Amazon.

I believe that this Goodreads promotion will help a lot.  It is not necessarily how many people enter the contest or how many people mark my book to read.  First, the chance that someone who enters this contest and doesn’t win will then turn around and buy my book is very slim.  Second, most if not all the people who mark my book to read will never get to it.  It’s hard to find anyone with less than fifty books on their shelf.  Most have over a thousand.  Some in the tens of thousands.

So, how is this book promotion going to help?  One word – reviews.  I have seven copies to give away.  In hindsight I think I should have gone with ten or more.  I wish I could give away more than fifty.  If the responses I’ve gotten so far isn’t an anomaly than most of the reviews I get should be favorable.  If that rings true, then it will help to bolster my weak promotional skill.

​I have several projects I’m working on but can’t say when any of them will be finished.  I’ve been slack for the last couple of years when my wife developed cancer and then passed away last year.

     Without question, this has been the hardest book I have ever written.  There is so much emotion in it that I was not sure I could properly communicate it.  I had to gauge what each character was feeling.  For me this was not an easy task.  I had to be sure to balance each character’s feelings in relation to what they faced, or had faced.  In life people do not react to tragedy in the same way, though they may still hurt the same.  The mourning period itself deviates from one person to another.  To one person the mourning subsides after a few months.  To another it goes on for years.
     I have to confess that my own experience of losing my wife last year has affected me in the writing of this book.  It did not prompt me to write the book because I had started the book before she died, though I had only a few pages written.  Even so I feel especially connected to the book because of my wife’s passing.
     I find it difficult to judge the worth of this book.  Is it a good heartfelt drama that emphasizes the Christian experience?  Or will it be perceived as a mawkish narrative of an overdeveloped theme?
     If nothing else I hope it conveys some important Christian truths that we sometimes neglect while finding faults in others.
     I think we all want to live happily ever after, but in life, even happily ever after, comes with some scars.

     This is the first day of my Amazon Free day promotion.  I was a bit anxious this morning to see how effective my pre-promotion was.  I had submitted to nearly 20 sites and this book "The coming of dark" had been my most successful.  Not long after I had published the book it had ranked between 4,000 to 5,00 on Amazon for three months.  Unfortunately, it had slipped back quite a bit in the ranking, and it was an older book so I was cautiously optimistic that it would do good.
     I thought about getting up extremely early in the morning to start tweeting about my free book, but then decided I probably wouldn't make much difference.  So, I got up a little after 6 am.  I checked my KDP.   Not a single book was downloaded.  I was disappointed.  I posted my free book on twitter.  After a couple of hours still no downloads.  I went to my book on Amazon to see if my ranking had gone up. Maybe my KDP wasn't recording the downloads for some reason.  To my dismay my book wasn't free. 
      At first I wasn't sure what to do, if anything.  I have had promotions that started a couple of hours later than 12 am.  After a short time I went to my KDP to check my giveaway times.  I couldn't see how they could be wrong.  When I submit books to different sites for a free giveaway I'm very paranoid about giving the wrong dates so I am constantly checking my dates as I contact these sites.  Anyway, when I check on my promotion it is empty, no dates at all.  I was mad and frustrated.  It took me a few minutes to come up with a plan.  I decided to contact Amazon.
     It's not like I could just make a phone call.  The only way I knew to get in touch with them was to go to the "contact" on my KDP.   I knew this could take a while.  I wrote my message and sent it.  The message back to me was that it could take up to 24 hours for a response.  I had to accept that this promotion was a bust.
     A little back story.  A week ago I had contacted Amazon about changing categories listed on my book site on Amazon.  An Amazon representative contacted me via email saying that what I had chosen was a bit unusual and their tech guy would have to check it out to see if he could do it.  He couldn't get to it till Thursday, the day before my giveaway.  Thursday came and another email.  The tech guy couldn't do it for some reason, but he had changed something else I had asked about.
     I had an idea.  I went to Amazon to schedule a giveaway for the next two days, so it wouldn't all be lost.  Next I decided I needed to contact the sites I posted my book to tell them that my book was not free.  I only contacted two because their site said that it was too late to make changes.  Besides the next two days should be okay.
     I got an email from Amazon about three hours after I had sent them a message.  The representative said that she had tried to call me.  She had my old phone number.  She apologized and told me that she had went ahead and started my promotion.  She gave me the link so I could check it out.
     I was astonished!  I hadn't expected Amazon to respond so quickly, especially to actually make a phone call.  I would have expected it if I was Stephen King or James Patterson.  But not me.
     I have new respect for that monster corporation.        

     There are a lot of books out there on how to make a good living as a self-published writer.  Some of them offer some very good advice.  One snippet of advice, however, seems to be prevalent among the majority of the books that I have read.  That is: write more books.  After that there are usually tips on how to write faster.  To some that works just fine.  I tried following that advice, though I was working a 40 plus hour real job and didn’t have a lot of time.  I wrote more, but got sloppy and put out work that I was not proud of.  At the time, I thought my writing was good.  I’m not necessarily talking about grammar and spelling, though I know they are import aspects as well.  I’m talking about the construction of the story itself.
One problem I found when I went back to my books was that I was not meticulous about the details and I think that’s essential.
     In one of my books I had a character carrying a backpack.  A little further in the story the backpack is mysteriously absent.  Some may not have noticed, but I should have.  I have since corrected that.
     In other cases, an explanation for an action, or a scene, is too confusing, or seems too unlikely.  Though my stories are fiction I need write them as if they are true, as if I were on a stand being drilled by a skilled attorney.
     Keeping characters true to their nature can be a problem for me sometimes.  I constantly have to ask myself if my character is responding to a certain situation as is true to their nature.  If not, I need to have a reasonable explanation of why the reaction is not what is expected.  This can take a little time.
     I’m all for a professional editor but I think an author needs to go through their work at least a couple of times before turning it over to an editor.  I have learned over time that this is something I need to do.  I’m looking for the abstract.  Are my characters behaving the way I want them to?  Are they funny?  Are they serious?  What makes them cry?  What makes them angry?  And, what about the plot?  How much should I reveal early on?  How much do I reveal as a surprise?  Do all the situations work together to form a suitable end?  What I’m getting at is that good syntax by itself doesn’t guarantee a good story.  I like what Dean Koontz has said.
 
I don't write a quick draft and then revise; instead, I work slowly page by page, revising and polishing.
     DEAN KOONTZ
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dean_koontz.html
 
I've got a long list of books I wish I'd never written-and I've kept them all out of print for the past 20 years.
     DEAN KOONTZ
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dean_koontz.html
 
     What I’ve learned is that I can’t roll out a decent book in just a short time.  I’ve tried it.  For me it doesn’t work.  I’ve decided to concentrate on the quality of the story as best I can and if it takes more time than I would like I’ll just have to live with it.  This is hard for me because I am impatient.  Before I’m even finished one book I’m ready to start on another.
     I would like to say that everything I put out from now on will be best-seller material.  Man, that would be great!  But the truth is I’m still learning.  Don’t count me out, though, I’ve still got my eye on the prize.
 
Thanks for reading
Gary

     The Doorway is a science fiction/fantasy trilogy involving three teenagers, Brainy, Wendy, and Thumper.  Because the main characters are ages thirteen and fourteen some would classify this series as middle grade.  I think that classification is too limiting.  The Doorway is intended for anyone who enjoys the science fiction/fantasy genre.’
     There is violence in the books, (but not graphic) and on more than one occasion the protagonists are fighting for their lives.  There are fears and there are tears, but often they are mixed with a little humor.  These are three young friends on an adventure of a lifetime.
     The stories move at a fairly-quick pace.  There is a lot of action, a decent plot, unique characters, and a realistically drawn world.
     The first book –Other World – is an introduction to the three protagonists; to their character, demonstrated by how they react to the different obstacles thrown in their way, and how they relate to each other in difficult situations.
These teenagers are unique in that they do not spew profanity or lewd comments, and they show genuine respect for each other.
     The second book (Night Stalkers) is a little darker.  They are faced with enemies who have no regard for human life.  They think of humans as food and, because the daylight hurts them, they hunt at night.
In the third book (The Wizard) the teens are seeking a man known as ‘the wizard’ to help them get home.  This book is a mixture of serious action and somewhat silly characters.
     This book is better than when I first published it.  Very recently I went through the entire trilogy making it a better read.  The changes I have made didn’t have a lot to do with typos and bad grammar, though I did have some corrections to make.  I was looking more at the substance of the story. I sought to make it more readable: to make descriptions and explanations clearer.  To make dialogue crisp and to stay true to that character’s voice.  Some description, or dialogue that I felt unnecessary I deleted.  At times in the story I felt I needed to add something.  Altogether, I think It’s a lot better book, but unfortunately, I am not perfect so there may be some imperfections.  I am truly open to suggestions provided it doesn’t include personal attacks.
 

I like to write.  I like building worlds and creating characters.  One problem I have is that I often get bored, or come up with a temporary case of writer's block.  Or maybe I just get distracted too easily.  Whatever the case that could be the reason I can't stick with one writing project.  Right now I am trying to finish up a short story to complete my book of short stories, as well as  two books that are in various phases of completion.  I have other book ideas that I am anxious to get to, but they'll have to wait. 
Soon I hope to post snippets of my work.  I'd love to get some feedback to see if I'm heading in the right direction.
I will be working on a advertising campaign in the near future.  Don't have a specific date in mind it's dependent on several things, money being a big factor.
This blog is short and simple.  This is just an introduction to a new chapter in my life.  More fuller blogs will come later.

 
I was on Amazon the other day looking up a book by Stephen King when I came across a book that I had never heard of.  It was titled “Awaken.”  It was a book of short stories.  What really got my attention was that the book had only a 2 star rating.  What’s more 69% of the star ratings were for 1 (one) star.  I couldn’t believe it.  Something was wrong.  Had I accidently slipped into an alternate universe?  I wondered why it had been rated so low so I looked for the reviews.  It only took me reading a couple of reviews to realize what was happening.
This was not the Stephen King of “The stand, It, Cujo” and numerous other blockbusters.  Now if this is the author’s real name I think he should use it, but it seems to me he is making no effort to distinguish himself from the great author Stephen King except for a small note under editorial reviews that is easy to overlook that says:  Please note: if you are looking for books by Stephen King, bestselling author of Doctor Sleep and the Shinning please visit his author page.  The word “author page” is in blue so one can click on it.  This note in itself is misleading.  One could assume that the publisher was merely pointing you to his author page.
Could it be that this author of “Awaken” and other subpar books seriously thought people were buying his books for what they were and not confusing him with bestselling author Stephen King?  Let’s check out that hypothesis.
​
Here are a few details:
Awaken.  RATING:  2.0.  REVIEWS:  103.  PUBLISHED: 01/07/2016.  PRICE:  $6.99
Messiah.   RATING: 1.0.  REVIEWS:  7        PUBLISHED: 04/10/2016.  PRICE:  $0.99
Descendants.  Rating: 2.3.  REVIEWS 90    PUBLISHED: 01/07/2016.  PRICE: $6.99
(The note referring to bestselling author Stephen King’s author page was more prominent, but still nothing saying that this author is not that bestselling author)
 
Beast Control.  RATING: 2.4.  REVIEWS 63.  PUBLISHED: 05/08/2015.  PRICE:  $4.99
Redstone.  RATING: 2.3.  REVIEWS: 81.  PUBLISHED: 12/12/2014    PRICE: $4.99
Blood rituals.  RATING: 2.5.  REVIEWS: 96.  PUBLISHED: 12/12/2014.  PRICE:  $4.99
 
Could this author really believe that he could get all these reviews without people confusing him with the bestselling author – bad reviews at that – and still move up on Amazon’s bestseller’s list?  I can’t believe that.  I think that he just couldn’t stand up on his own merits. 
This is an insult to authors (such as myself) who struggle to make a good book that people want to read and then have to go to the arduous task of promoting it.  I’m envious of just getting that many reviews in such a short period of time.  And what about the prices?  If I could sell a book with a 2.0 rating for nearly seven dollars I wouldn’t get so upset with a bad review.  I’m not the greatest writer, but I’m always striving to be better.  It irritates me when someone can move up so quickly by riding on someone else’s accomplishments.
I guess there’s only one thing I can do.  Tomorrow I go to the courthouse and see how much it costs to change my name to Dean Koontz.
 
Gary

     It has been nearly two weeks since I published “Demon” the second book of the two book series “Rifts”.  I have to admit that writing them was both fun and torturous.  When the thoughts and words flowed it was a great and euphoric experience.  But that was not always the case.  Sometimes I had to muddle through the process of writing.  I can’t always wait for inspiration.
    “Demon” climaxes what “Rifts” started.  It begins to show the real evil and those who are meant to oppose it.
I wasn’t sure that I would be able to publish “Demon” before the end of March, but I made it.  As I had stated in a blog earlier in the year I plan to make this my year.  I had been approaching my writing more like a hobby.  But I can’t do that anymore.  Time is short.
    I’ve published two books this year.  They were Rifts and Demon.  Combined they were over 120,000 words.  I am on my next book tentatively titled “The Awakening”.  I am a little over 20,000 words on it.  I’m hoping to have it published early next month.  I have an outline for the book after that, but one thing at a time.
     “The Awakening” is primarily a young adult novel.  It is to be a science fiction thriller story with a bit of horror rolled into the mix.  I can’t really give any more detail about what I plan because sometimes I don’t stay with my outline.  Along the way to the end I often see another route to take that seems more interesting.
     If I stay with my plans for the book after that I will just say that involves a church burning that happened years ago, a haunting, and a mystery.

​Gary